Search for Single Scattering Events

Extract

Radio signals, during their passage through the intervening medium, are scattered due to irregularities in the density of free electrons in the interstellar medium. Signals from distant sources undergo, most often, strong & multiple scattering while the signals from nearby sources may be only weakly scattered even at meter wavelengths. It is likely that the scattering of signals from some nearby sources is possibly non-multiple in nature and hence may show a distinct signature of single or discrete scattering events. In such a situation we receive, along with the direct unscattered signal, only a few discrete delayed versions of the signal. In such a case, it appears possible to probe the properties (such as the size and the density contrast) of the discrete density-irregularities responsible for the scattering, if the associated delays can be measured.